Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tsetse, no game', a commonly heard saying, refers to the fact that without the painfully an-
noying flies, human settlements and their accompanying livestock would devastate wild-
life habitats.) Even outside the parks, on areas of land shared by people and animals, there
was conflict. The same is still true today. To a poor rural subsistence farmer, wildlife is
nothing but a problem: lions will kill cattle, and an elephant takes an hour to polish off a
field of crops that took all year to grow. 'Chilli fences' are one method used to prevent
elephants from raiding farms; pepper spray is manufactured from the four-times-a-year
chilli harvest.
With this inevitable tension in mind, all of the national parks are surrounded by a ring
of Game Management Areas (GMAs), a good portion of which are earmarked as hunting
concessions. However, in a move surprising and encouraging to conservationists, in early
2013 Zambia announced a ban on the hunting of lions, leopards and other endangered big
cats (19 hunting concessions were suspended and the director-general of ZAWA was fired
because of allegations of corruption at the same time). At the time of research, though, the
ban is only in effect for a year, until new baselines of big cat population figures can be es-
tablished; it's also still legal on private 'game ranches' with official permits. Newly in-
stalled tourism minister Sylvia Masebo explained that photographic tourism is more eco-
nomically important than hunting.
Whatever the future policies are in terms of big cats, hunting in the GMAs will contin-
ue. To many, this might seem like a compromise of conservationist ideals, but it's argued
that if there was no hunting there would be indiscriminate and unregulated slaughter.
Much of the revenue from licensing fees goes to headmen or chiefs in the surrounding
villages as well as ZAWA. To the frustration of conservationists, some headmen and
chiefs still regard themselves as above the law, including a chief in South Luangwa who
has been found unashamedly with several kills. Whether ZAWA spends the money wisely
or even legitimately is also an issue of concern; however, without the proceeds ZAWA
would certainly be unable to operate and would lose any leverage it has to convince com-
munities not to hunt, themselves. Technically, the Zambian state owns all of the wildlife,
while the land belongs to the traditional chiefs.
BUSH MEAT
Arguably, the biggest problem is indiscriminate snaring for commercial bush meat. If
caught poaching for meat the punishment is mitigated and considered a lighter offense
than for ivory (this includes if someone is caught with a dead elephant with the tusks still
on). If the poacher is caught with an animal with the skin still on the animal then the pun-
ishment is a minimum five years in prison (since it's not considered a bush meat kill but
rather a 'trophy'). Sold 'underground' in the back of shops or door to door to trusted cus-
tomers, it's the middle and upper class, mostly in Lusaka, who are driving the bush-meat
